Getting Ahead

Bay Area Cantonese restaurants sell half or whole chicken and duck. Although traditionalists prefer to carve the fowl themselves, the restaurants will slice it free upon request.

We bought a whole steamed chicken yesterday, and the restaurant cut the chicken and included its head. Not only does it prove to the customer that he received the entire chicken, but many diners still regard the head as a delicacy.

My father and uncles patiently waited for their kids to serve themselves, knowing that the head would remain untouched. Saving the best for last, they sucked the entire appendage, leaving only the beak and pieces of the skull.

I throw the head into the compost pile. That's one tradition that stopped with the previous generation. Sorry, Dad!